Vegans tend to get asked a lot of questions about their
cruelty-free lifestyle. One of those is what is the difference between
killing an animal and killing a plant – killing is killing, right?
There is an awful lot of scientific
evidence out there about the fundamental biological and physiological
differences between animals and plants, things like central nervous systems and
conscious awareness, or in contrast, the absence of those. The physical
and interactive differences are so apparent as to make comparisons between
killing plants and killing animals of night and day difference.
Even from the position of a
non-scientist, the differences are very apparent. Animals are vastly more
complex entities than plants. Animals have the ability to see, hear,
feel, communicate (albeit in a rudimentary fashion) and to express pleasure and
pain. A cat purring or a dog wagging its tail speak volumes.
Like-wise an animal that is under threat or in pain will
express itself to let it be known or take action to make fight or flight.
Clearly plants do not have this myriad of animal characteristics.
Also, the biological “end-game” of animal life is way more
to similar to the passing away of a human than it is to the “passing away” of a
fruit or vegetable.
There is the morality angle to factor
into this equation too.It is difficult to argue that there is a moral
equivalency between hitting a dog and hitting, say, a pineapple.
The overwhelming majority of humans have an inbuilt moral predisposition for
recognizing pain and suffering in others, and that includes animals. A
sense of outrage is simply never going to be apparent when one sees someone
mowing their lawn as opposed to witnessing the misery of a bull-fight or the
inside of an animal slaughter-house.